Dylan Arthur Garber’s three design patents issued this month (D1123836, D1124346, D1124347) add to a highly consolidated international patent family group—one of two separate families associated with Audien.
The ownership trail isn’t immediately obvious from the patents themselves; it only becomes clear after following the USPTO Assignment Center records.
One small wrinkle: “Audien LLC” does not appear as an active Arizona business entity, despite appearing in the patent assignment records (it’s a TM for at least one other company). Even so, the patent families line up neatly with Audien’s product portfolio. The three newly issued design patents appear to cover products in the company’s Atom hearing aid series, while the second patent family corresponds to its RIC-style products. Garber, of course, co-founded the companies behind the Audien brand.
The April 2026 patent list
| Description | Patent Number | Assignee or Applicant | Issued |
| Earbud sensing system and method employing light steering and spatial diversity | 12593982 | Senbiosys (Neuchatel, CH) | 4/07/2026 |
| Auricular sleep monitoring systems and ear-canal pulse oximeter | 12594026 | Shaw, David C (Torrance, CA) | 4/07/2026 |
| Systems and devices for treating equilibrium disorders and improving gait and balance | 12594422 | Starkey Laboratories Inc (Eden Prairie, MN) | 4/07/2026 |
| Systems and methods for virtual microphones in active noise cancellation | 12597411 | Harman International Industries Inc (Stamford, CT) | 4/07/2026 |
| In-ear wearable device
|
12598409 | Listening Wisdom (Nanjing) Technology Co Ltd (Nanjing City, CN) | 4/07/2026 |
| Hearing device comprising a partition | 12598411 | GN Hearing A/S (Ballerup, DK) | 4/07/2026 |
| Speaker system for an in-the-ear hearing device | 12598413 | Sivantos Pte Ltd (Singapore, SG) | 4/07/2026 |
| Method and system for transmitting audio signals | 12598418 | Sonova AG (Staefa, CH) | 4/07/2026 |
| Audio device with electrostatic discharge protection | 12598420 | Bose Corporation (Framingham, MA) | 4/07/2026 |
| Side-by-side comparison of hearing device output based on physical coupling to device under simulation | 12598432 | Earlens Corporation (Menlo Park, CA) | 4/07/2026 |
| Constant improvement of hearing aids by retraining with selected data collected in use | 12598434 | Fortell Research Inc (New York, NY) | 4/07/2026 |
| Method and system for use of hearing prosthesis for linguistic evaluation | 12599767 | Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, AU) | 4/14/2026 |
| Advanced electrode data analysis | 12599768 | Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, AU) | 4/14/2026 |
| Earbud with a built-in thermometer | 12604124 | Precision Sensors Design Inc & Shie, Jin-Shown (Hsinchu, TW) | 4/14/2026 |
| Hearing device with a bleeding circuit for delivering messages to a charging device | 12604130 | Sonova AG (Staefa, CH) | 4/14/2026 |
| Sound producing apparatus and wearable sound device | 12604135 | xMEMS Labs Inc (Santa Clara, CA) | 4/14/2026 |
| Operating a hearing device to assist the user in engaging in a healthy living style | 12604147 | Sonova AG (Staefa, CH) | 4/14/2026 |
| Audio processing using ear-wearable device and wearable vision device | 12604148 | Starkey Laboratories Inc (Eden Prairie, MN) | 4/14/2026 |
| Earbuds | 12610171 | Apple Inc (Cupertino, CA) | 4/21/2026 |
| Capacitive earbud detection in an earbud charging case | 12610173 | NXP BV (Eindhoven, NL) | 4/21/2026 |
| B2 Hearing effect calibration method and apparatus for earphone, and device and medium | 12610190 | Goertek Technology Co. Ltd (Qingdao, CN) | 4/21/2026 |
| Method, apparatus and system for neural network hearing aid | 12610200 | Fortell Research Inc (New York, NY) | 4/21/2026 |
| Hearing device | 12610201 | Sivantos Pte Ltd (Singapore, SG) | 4/21/2026 |
| Hearing aid or hearing aid system supporting wireless streaming | 12610202 | Oticon A/S (Smorum, DK) | 4/21/2026 |
| Talker-specific tuning of hearing assistance device | 12610203 | QUALCOMM Inc (San Diego, CA) | 4/21/2026 |
| Adjustable hearing protection device | 12611334 | De Jong, Arjen (Barneveld, NL) | 4/28/2026 |
| Auditory devices for hearing protection | 12614536 | Sony Group Corporation (Tokyo, JP) | 4/28/2026 |
| Earbud charging case with speakers | 12615468 | Rachal-Johnson, Natasha (Deridder, CA) | 4/28/2026 |
| Switching between multiple earbud architectures | 12615469 | Google LLC (Mountain View, CA) | 4/28/2026 |
| Stand-alone multifunctional earphone for sports activities | 12615470 | Bragi GmbH (Munich, DE) | 4/28/2026 |
| Activity detection using a hearing instrument | 12615472 | Starkey Laboratories Inc (Eden Prairie, MN) | 4/28/2026 |
| Ear-worn hearing device with physiological or activity sensor | 12615482 | Knowles Electronics LLC (Itasca, IL) | 4/28/2026 |
| Method for providing mode of hearing aid earphone providing hearing mode and music mode, and system therefor | 12615483 | Olive Union Inc (Seoul, KR) | 4/28/2026 |
| In-ear headphone testing system and method | 12615486 | Merry Electronics (Suzhou) Co Ltd (Suzhou City, CN) | 4/28/2026 |
| Hearing aid charger | D1123836 | Garber, Dylan Arthur (Scottsdale, AZ) | 4/28/2026 |
| Hearing aid set | D1124346 | Garber, Dylan Arthur (Scottsdale, AZ) | 4/28/2026 |
| Hearing aid and charger set
|
D1124347 | Garber, Dylan Arthur (Scottsdale, AZ) | 4/28/2026 |
About the Author
Holly Hosford-Dunn, PhD, owned and operated a dispensing audiology practice in Tucson and was active in management of HearingHealthMatters.org through 2017. She holds BA degrees in Communication Sciences, Psychology and Economics; MA in Communication Disorders; PhD in Hearing Sciences. Following post-doctoral work at Max Planck Institute (Munich, DE) and Eaton-Peabody Auditory Physiology Lab (Boston), she joined the Stanford medical school faculty as director of audiology. She has authored/edited numerous text books, chapters, journals, and articles and taught Marketing and Practice Management in a variety of academic settings. She continues to consult and write on topics related to hearing health care vis-à-vis consumer demands, professional training, technological advancement, capital investment, industry consolidation, regulatory control, product and service distribution, and strategic pricing.
